For those interested in old cars.

[alastairq]

Was it torpedoed? 

 

[MrWolf]

1 minute ago, alastairq said:

Was it torpedoed? 

 

 

It does look like it was torpedoed in the stern. Perhaps they have parked it up rather than steam around in a circle until the British fleet catch up with it a la Bismarck?

[MrWolf]

4 hours ago, rocor said:

 

What is the plan?. Is it to keep the car as original as possible?, or a complete make the car better than it was produced new restoration?.

 

To keep it basically as is with the exception of removing the 1956 style side trims and badges to fit the full length 1957 items.

 

 

[steve1]

20 hours ago, rocor said:

 

What is the plan?. Is it to keep the car as original as possible?, or a complete make the car better than it was produced new restoration?.

 

It sounds an ideal candidate for one of those TV restoration shows…

 

steve

[MrWolf]

9 minutes ago, steve1 said:

 

It sounds an ideal candidate for one of those TV restoration shows…

 

steve

 

Those where they only have two weeks and £500 to do a full resto? Yet the other featured cars are in primer / dismantled in the background?

Those cars look alright for about six months. Don't leave them out in the rain though.

[Kickstart]

58 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

Those where they only have two weeks and £500 to do a full resto? Yet the other featured cars are in primer / dismantled in the background?

Those cars look alright for about six months. Don't leave them out in the rain though.

Some of the bodgery we get subjected to is frightening. And sometimes the most skilled work is done by sone forgotten guy in the corner 

 

Some of the Youtube videos can be interesting. There is one in the USA where a guy is attempting to recommission a Lotus Esprit. That he paid $300 for! Abandoned for  20 odd years. Interior is destroyed, but he has now got tte engine running. The state underneath is amazingly good. He was offered this Esprit as already working on a flood salvage one (in one shot he opens the flap over the fuel filler, revealing the tide mark!).

 

All the best

 

Katy

[Captain Cuttle]

On 02/05/2021 at 11:51, alastairq said:

Then there's the massive increase in the cost of so-called green electricity  to recharge it, once we've all been led by the nose into buying an EV?

Because we've all rushed to accept smart meters?

{Called ''SMART'' meters on account of what it will feel like once the bills start coming in, a few years from hence?]

 

Still, what about those wind turbines? 

Apparently the gas that was used as a fire suppressant in the switch gear for these turbines is very harmful to the environment, if it leaks out....which it  does on an regular and  frequent basis?

yes, i know new technology for fire suppressing switch gear o them has been changed....but I'm willing to bet no every wind turbine has been changed over?

Going on the progress by powergen simply putting my village's lekky cables underground, that could be a few years/decades hence?

 

Oh yes, also the fire risks when one inevitably crashes one's EV?  I wonder why the MSuk has been so reluctant to allow EV's t compete in certain forms of motorsport? [Like, trialling?] The fact that an REV's battery fire cannot be put out by conventional means? [Witchcraft is involved, I believe?}

I have no issues whatsoever about EV's being mandatory in places like Greater London/Manchester/Birmingham....[providing there is a strict manufactured mileage limit placed on them, so they cannot quite get to where I live without running out of volts.]

 

I view the promotion of EVs in the same vein as Jehovah's Witnesses. No problem you having your beliefs, just don't try to foist them on me!!

 

Otherwise I might just buy myself an ancient electric milk float, and promptly and deliberately go out & get in evberybody's way! Tough!

I often wonder with these conversions, where do they put the battery cos they are not small are they? Plus how does it affect your car insurance with potential fire risk?

[PhilJ W]

8 minutes ago, Captain Cuttle said:

I often wonder with these conversions, where do they put the battery cos they are not small are they? Plus how does it affect your car insurance with potential fire risk?

There was an item in Practical Classics a couple of months ago. They tested several conversions, some using components from electric cars  such as the Tesla, and others simply replacing the petrol engine with an electric motor retaining the original transmission. Amongst the latter were a Morris Minor and a Land Rover. The Morris had the boot as well as the bonnet stuffed with batteries (Li batteries are very light in weight.) making it more of a commuter car. The Land Rover as well as having batteries under the bonnet had them in place of the fuel tank under the front seats. The Land Rover had a range of about 180 miles on one charge. Provided that the batteries are maintained and are not punctured fire isn't a problem, and it takes a lot more to puncture a battery than it does a petrol tank. 

[big jim]

One for mick for deadman’s lane....

 

 

 

[russ p]

1 hour ago, big jim said:

One for mick for deadman’s lane....

 

 

 

 

I think that belongs to Mark who goes in the Alex

[37114]

On 26/04/2021 at 09:55, MrWolf said:

Other possibilities are:

 

Disc valve not seating due to dirt, rotten rubber or loose / ill fitting cage.

Gasket to fuel filter passing air.

Fuel pipe to tank blocked, corroded or drawing air.

Fuel tank pickup pipe blocked or breather blocked.

Carburettor float jet jammed shut or blocked.

Update on the fuel pump; I finally managed to get it off the engine tonight,  the cause is a knackered rubber seal around the glass sediment bowl meaning that the pump was sucking in air. New seals order and we will see how we get on...

[MrWolf]

I've had that problem on a number of old Vauxhall engines that have been standing for years. A get you home bodge is to scrape the hardened surface of the rubber seal with a knife blade to remove the hardened surface, run in a little engine oil and refit.

[w124bob]

Stopped for driving whilst attempting to play the bagpipes.

 

 

[PatB]

Based on my extensive time spent in breakers yards back in the early 80s, conventional cars used to catch fire quite frequently back then, but I don't remember anyone worrying about it overmuch out in the world in general. An awful lot of yard inmates were there because of either an engine (carburettor, basically) or dashboard (electrical) fire. Indeed, of the stuff that was too young to be there because of rust, I'd estimate that fire damage was at least as common as crash damage as a cause of writing off.

 

As for not being able to put out a battery fire, I would point to Exhibit A, the air-cooled VW magnesium crankcase and gearbox housings. Known for 60 years to burn fiercely and pretty much unextinguishably in the event of an engine fire getting out of hand, but not, AFAIK, worried about overmuch in the world at large, even when there were an awful lot of them around.

Edited May 5, 2021 by PatB

[boxbrownie]

24 minutes ago, PatB said:

Based on my extensive time spent in breakers yards back in the early 80s, conventional cars used to catch fire quite frequently back then, but I don't remember anyone worrying about it overmuch out in the world in general. An awful lot of yard inmates were there because of either an engine (carburettor, basically) or dashboard (electrical) fire. Indeed, of the stuff that was too young to be there because of rust, I'd estimate that fire damage was at least as common as crash damage as a cause of writing off.

 

As for not being able to put out a battery fire, I would point to Exhibit A, the air-cooled VW magnesium crankcase and gearbox housings. Known for 60 years to burn fiercely and pretty much unextinguishably in the event of an engine fire getting out of hand, but not, AFAIK, worried about overmuch in the world at large, even when there were an awful lot of them around.

You mustn’t let logic get in the way of a decent bout of paranoia though 

[Nick C]

31 minutes ago, PatB said:

Based on my extensive time spent in breakers yards back in the early 80s, conventional cars used to catch fire quite frequently back then, but I don't remember anyone worrying about it overmuch out in the world in general. An awful lot of yard inmates were there because of either an engine (carburettor, basically) or dashboard (electrical) fire. Indeed, of the stuff that was too young to be there because of rust, I'd estimate that fire damage was at least as common as crash damage as a cause of writing off.

 

As for not being able to put out a battery fire, I would point to Exhibit A, the air-cooled VW magnesium crankcase and gearbox housings. Known for 60 years to burn fiercely and pretty much unextinguishably in the event of an engine fire getting out of hand, but not, AFAIK, worried about overmuch in the world at large, even when there were an awful lot of them around.

 

6 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

You mustn’t let logic get in the way of a decent bout of paranoia though 

 

When a litihum battery burns, it gives off a number of gases, which in turn burn themselves. It can also go into thermal runaway, perpetuating the fire regardless of any kind of suppression methods.

 

One of those gases is Hydrogen Fluoride, which goes on to form Hydrofluoric Acid - one of the nastiest chemicals known to man...

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, PatB said:

Based on my extensive time spent in breakers yards back in the early 80s, conventional cars used to catch fire quite frequently back then, but I don't remember anyone worrying about it overmuch out in the world in general.

 

I had Mini with two faults on the float chamber. One was a bit of grit stuck in the valve. The other was a missing baffle over the overflow hole. Each stroke of the fuel pump sent a nice squirt of petrol across the engine bay.

[alastairq]

43 minutes ago, PatB said:

the air-cooled VW magnesium crankcase

 

These were quite sought-after back indy days, by folk wanting to melt down and produce magnesium wheels...mainly in the US of A..

 

There is also a tale that may have given rise to the [USA] opinion that VW beetle drivers were a  can short of a six-pack [barmy, in posh speak]...

This tale concerned the little markings VW put at various speeds on the speedometer of a beetle?

 

Rumour had it that VW put these marks on to indicate speeds above which it was inadvisable to hold that gear.....US owner/drivers took them to mean, the speeds at which one should change gear.

Hence VW beetle drivers drove about almost absolutely  flat out in each gear.......

 

[With it being rear engined, only the driver behind could use his ears as a rev counter...Probably led to a lot of wincing, too?]

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, w124bob said:

Stopped for driving whilst attempting to play the bagpipes.

 

 

Looks more like a Christmas turkey, perhaps he was trying to play that.

[alastairq]

3 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Looks more like a Christmas turkey, perhaps he was trying to play that.

 No wonder the Plurd stopped him?   Had he been playing the bagpipes, he would have been avoided at all costs...But inflating a dead turkey is entirely another matter in France!

[boxbrownie]

53 minutes ago, Nick C said:

 

 

One of those gases is Hydrogen Fluoride, which goes on to form Hydrofluoric Acid - one of the nastiest chemicals known to man...

Yes, and it can be the result of a lot of silicone rubber used in vehicles after a fire, one part of my job was to photograph and detail post “thermal events” on vehicles and the H&S regime was intense, get HF on your skin and there’s no cure, it eats though to your bones and can migrate.....extremely nasty indeed.

 

Otherwise it’s fine 

[MrWolf]

I also spent a lot of time in breakers yards in the 1980s, originally helping my father or my uncles recover bits for their own cars, later for my own cars and I had a part time job in one when I was at university.

The majority of junked cars in the UK were suffering from terminal rust, evidently more to do with our lousy weather and salt spreading than poor build quality. 

Then you got the accident write offs, some of which were gruesomely spectacular.

Then you got the burn outs. These were generally caused by cheap nasty switchgear (Austin Rover) or dodgy engine loom to cabin loom connectors (Ford) 

Then you had the new generation EFI cars, which carried on pumping fuel under pressure after a collision or other cause of leak. It was a while before we got a cut-off that actually worked. (Everyone!)

Late 80s early 90s, it was the TWOCCERS stealing and burning people's cars and as the owner of a hot hatch that I had worked my ass off to afford, I had no sympathy for any of those scrotes that killed themselves.

I remember the warning posters and COSHH sheets that we had regarding Hydrofluoric acid, it came initially from new types of plastics and rubber substitutes that were starting to appear. ISTR that the only cure for getting the stuff on your fingers was amputation. Nasty.

In the early 80s it was still common especially in rural yards to set fire to cars that had had all the useful parts removed to get rid of the remaining upholstery. A holdover from the days of wood body frames and horsehair seats. Luckily the practice was banned by the vehicle dismantlers association.

Rest assured, the components from your life expired electric car will, like other electronics be dealt with by a specialist company.

You will be able to hand it over to the recycler knowing that you have done the right thing for the planet.

They will send it on a giant oil powered container ship to the third world where children will set it on fire and rake through the blazing puddle to recover the metals.

These metals will be sent on a giant oil powered container ship to China, where they will be smelted under the strictest of controls.

Not environmental controls of course...

Paranoia? 

Fact actually. Been there. Seen it. Not fooled.

 

[Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, alastairq said:

 No wonder the Plurd stopped him?   Had he been playing the bagpipes, he would have been avoided at all costs...But inflating a dead turkey is entirely another matter in France!

Incidentally, the 2CV was the high-speed pursuit car in this view; I wonder what the farmer was driving?

[alastairq]

7 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

Incidentally, the 2CV was the high-speed pursuit car in this view; I wonder what the farmer was driving?

 An even earlier Citroen duckshoveller?

Or, maybe, the farmer was simply marching up and down inflating the turkey?

[MrWolf]

Maybe his excuse for speeding was that he was an extra in The Longest Day and was late for a shoot.

 

"Yesterday we filmed the beach landing and the scene showed Les boches firing away at the landing craft while le mad Scottish soldier waded ashore playing the bagpipes so..."

 

Monsieur, you are not only barmy, you are nicked for bullpooping le gendarmerie..."